Statistics play a much more significant role in our lives than you might imagine. For example, insurance companies often use statistics to help price their policies, and of course, if you have any insurance policies, statistics have played a role in your life!
That said, numbers alone may be hard to understand, and that’s where qualitative data comes in! It is the much-needed understanding behind the numbers you see, and they give the “why” of the data you see today.
Let’s delve deeper into qualitative data and talk about how you can better gather qualitative data:
What Is Qualitative Data?
Qualitative data is information collected in a way that allows you to know the why behind the data. Remember, statistics are more than just numbers! It’s the stories around those numbers, and that story is shown with qualitative data.
Why Is Qualitative Data Important?
So what does qualitative data have to do with data analysis? Well, it all lies in its ability to expand on statistics.
For one, it’s important to have qualitative data throughout your data analysis process. In order to ensure that you’re researching the right elements of your data, it’s important to understand the why behind your numbers. Another reason why qualitative data is important to data analysis is that it can help you find the context and reason behind a statistic.
For example, you could look at statistics on the use of social media and find that the number of teens that use social media has dropped over the last five years. However, by looking at qualitative data, you may find that teens are spending less time on social media because more and more teens are looking for ways to spend less time online for various reasons.
Simply put, qualitative data allows you to see the “why” behind the numbers.
How Do I Gather Better Qualitative Data?
If you’re looking to gather more relevant and better qualitative data, here are a few tips you should follow:
1. Stay Neutral
If you want to be able to collect the most relevant qualitative data, it’s important that you’re as neutral as possible. By remaining neutral, you’ll be able to deliver the facts to all parties involved without showing any bias that can affect the results of your research.
2. Ask Unusual Questions
If you want to gather better qualitative data, it’s important that you ask questions that aren’t the typical ones. Be sure to ask very unusual, specific questions in order to gain better insights.
3. Listen To Conversations
Another great way to gather better qualitative data is by listening to conversations. Whether you’re listening in on an informal conversation or an online discussion, by listening to these conversations, you’ll be able to gain personal insights into the situation.
4. Analyze All Your Findings
Although some of the data you gather may be qualitative, you’ll still want to analyze everything in order to find any hidden trends or connections. As such, once you’ve gathered some qualitative data, analyze them properly and see the connections that they have with your quantitative data!
Conclusion
As you can see, qualitative data plays a big role in your data analysis. By collecting this qualitative data and analyzing it along with the quantitative data, you’ll be able to find important insights you need to prove your research, gather new ideas, and more!
Tetra Insights offers a leading qualitative research platform for reporting, moderated interview analysis, and more. If you are looking for a qualitative research tool to help you out, check out what we offer!
